Ever After
by Ollimartic
Summary: Axel is reluctant to marry and take the crown, until a neighboring prince comes for a visit. Akuroku, Soku.
1. Prologue: In the Beginning

Disclaimer: I don't own. Squeenix and whichever company the movie Ever After belongs to.

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**Ever After**

Once upon a time, there were two beautiful baby boys born in a palace on the same night, at the same hour. One to the queen, and the other to her servant. One had a messy mop of brown hair and the other a golden cowlick, but both had the same large, blue eyes.

So Roxas and Sora grew up together in the palace, terrorizing its inhabitants regularly.

And if Roxas sometimes forgot what he actually was and was too sharp in his words, well Sora did absolutely nothing about it.

They could've have been mistaken for brothers, twins even.

Except, one was destined to be king, and the other, the other was not supposed to be destined for anything at all.


	2. Disarray

(A/N): Changed the rating, I couldn't let Axel just not curse. He'd be even more OOC than he already is. Reviews maketh my day (insert winning smile)

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The sun was shining down, gracing the court and castle in a beautiful glow. The birds were singing and all was peaceful –

"I REFUSE TO MARRY."

A group of ladies in the corridors paused to listen to the series of slamming doors and thundering footsteps. They silently counted down in their minds, three, two, one.

"AXEL. AXEL COME BACK HERE, WE'RE NOT FINISHED TALKING."

The ladies curtsied as a tall redhead rushed by without even glancing at them. They curtsied again as a brunette rushed after the redhead. He paused to bow quickly before trying to hurry off without looking undignified. The ladies sighed and shook their heads before continuing on. So it was going to be a normal day after all.

Leon caught up with Axel just was the latter was about to step out the castle doors. He stopped and glared at the bright head of hair before smirking and raising his voice to make sure he could hear him.

"If you step out those doors I will marry you to the ugliest princess I can find," he stated clearly.

His smirk grew smug when the redhead stopped short and whipped around to glare fiercely at him.

Axel stomped up to the brunette until their noses were hardly six inches apart. "You can be a downright fucker," he hissed.

Leon kept smirking. "Had to be for you to be here right now," he replied smoothly. He ducked his head and smiled as Axel cringed and shook his head, trying to rid his mind of whatever images he had conjured up. He quickly grabbed Axel's arm and tugged him toward the dining room.

As soon as they settled into their seats, servants filed in from a side door to set food on the table and fill their cups.

Leon glanced at Axel sulking over his plate before taking a bite of food and shrugging. "You can't avoid this forever you know."

Axel made an irritated sound. "And I still don't see why I have to marry and Zexion doesn't," he returned before stabbing his eggs with a fork.

The brunette sighed and idly scratched the scar between his eyes. "Zexion isn't crown prince." He saw Axel open his mouth to reply and interrupted him before he could speak. "He doesn't have the people skills necessary to be king. As much of an ass you can be, Axel, you have the charisma needed," stated Leon with a long suffering voice of one used to explaining things to a child.

The only answer from the redhead was a whole lot of muttering under his breath and some curses unbefitting a prince.

Leon snorted. "Oh stop your whining," he huffed. "Everything has already been set up for you. There is a prince coming to stay with us for the next couple of weeks. They said he's a looker and a charmer," Leon said, standing up and beginning to walk towards the door. He turned over his shoulder and added, "You don't even have to like the guy, Axel. Just play nice and don't scare the boy. Last thing we need now is their king storming over here and declaring war on our asses." With that he slammed the doors shut and left his son to wallow in self pity.

With a groan, Axel flopped his head onto the table. "Damn fucker isn't even dead yet, don't know why he wants me to take the throne," he muttered.

Marriage was near the bottom of his list of priorities. Right now Axel just wanted to take a shovel and bury the idea six feet under all together. He didn't want to marry some stuck up prick who would constantly declare how lucky Axel was to have married him.

He didn't want to be like the stuffy dukes, and duchesses, counts and barons who frequented their home. The ones who could barely stand each other, but would ban together with their spouse to secretly insult or plot against Axel's family. He hated them all.

So what if Axel was a bit of a romantic. He didn't believe arranged marriages could work. How was he expected to live and get along with someone he didn't know. He had decided that if he was ever to marry, he'd marry for love. If his mother had ever taught him anything, it was that love was sacred. It was something to be valued and cherished.

There was no way in hell Axel was going to marry a stranger.

And wasn't this his life anyway? Wasn't he allowed any say in what went on in his own fuckin' life?

He continued on this like for a while, with his forehead flat on the table, until he had a sudden epiphany. Leon said he wasn't required to like the guy, Axel was free to make the kid's stay living hell as long as Axel didn't incur the wrath of the guy's kingdom.

Axel straightened and stood up to leave, wide smile gracing his face. He whistled all the way up to his room, even nodding graciously to a servant along the way. The servant gasped and ducked off.

He didn't like the look in the prince's eyes, he didn't like it one bit.

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Somewhere in the back of his unconscious mind, Roxas was vaguely aware of the fact that sleep was good. Sleep meant dreams, and dreams were a wonderful thing indeed.

Presently he was dreaming of large bowl of sea salt ice cream. It was dancing just out of reach no matter how hard or fast Roxas was running, constantly teasing him.

"Roxas. Rox-as," it taunted, twirling out of his grasp. The ice cream stopped and let out an indignant cry of "Roxas!" before pouncing on the blonde boy.

Roxas woke with a start to a mess of wild brown. He squinted at the moving mop, confused about what any of this had to do with sweet sea salt ice cream.

He dropped his head back onto his pillow with a groan when his mind cleared enough to realize the waving brown hair was attached to a head.

Sora.

Roxas turned over and burrowed beneath the covers, trying very hard to ignore the insistent shaking and shouts of his name from the brunette next to him.

Sora didn't like being ignored. He didn't care if Roxas wasn't a morning person or not. He was suppose to pay attention to him, damn it! "Roxas," he whined, "wake up, I need to talk to you." He paused to listen to the muffled grunt of a response before shaking the blonde's shoulder again.

When the other boy didn't move, Sora pouted and proceeded to pull the covers back with a flourish. Roxas yelped at the sudden lack of warmth and curled into a ball. He covered his eyes with one hand and blindly swatted at the brown haired boy next to him. King Cloud should make it illegal to be awoken this early, or at least for his son to be a nuisance at this hour.

"What," he groaned. Roxas cracked one eyes open to glare sleepily at the face next to his. Sora said nothing. He sat next to the lump of his friend and pouted, occasionally moving to shake an arm, but otherwise did nothing but pout. Roxas grimaced internally. If he were fully awake he would be able to resist Sora's infamous pout, but his mind was still foggy and could not process more than the fact that the brunette looked incredibly sad. Roxas hated it when Sora was sad.

Sora was just irresistible like that. It was incredibly hard to say no when the boy was giving his full pout with downcast stare. Roxas prided himself on being one of the few who could. The brunette was also the kind of person everyone just wanted to see happy, grinning and jumping with childish glee. People generally went out of their way to make him smile. Roxas went out of his way to protect him. Such were the facts of life.

So, because it too early to be functional, the blonde gave in and sat up, rubbing his eyes, a frown gracing his lips. "What is it, Sor?" he muttered.

That was all the mentioned needed before launching into full rant mode.

"Dad set me up with another person. Again! I thought I was clear when I told him I didn't want to marry anyone, especially not some old hag he set me up with." Sora stopped to take a breath and pull at his face. "He's always saying how 'You need to grow up, Sora. I'm not always going to be around, Sora. You need to learn how to be king, Sora."

Sometime during his rant, the brunette had gotten up to pace around the room, waving his arms around to emphasize his points. Roxas felt the corner of his lips lift a little bit when his friend puffed out his chest and lowered his voice to imitate the king.

He continued to watch the other boy for a time, lips sometimes quirking up when the brunette made an especially wild flail of his arms. By then the sun was fully up and completely illuminated the room with light. Roxas was enjoying the warmth. He almost went back to sleep, but a knock on the door pulled him back to consciousness. Sora turned and stopped to tilt his head at the door with a curious expression on his face. He issued a command for the person to come in. A young girl poked her head in, nodded to Roxas, before fully opening the door and bowing to Sora.

"His Majesty the King requests that the prince join him for breakfast. He said that he would also appreciate if Prince Sora did not take too long to go downstairs," she stated. After another bow she turned to leave, closing the door behind her.

With a loud groan, Sora flopped onto the bed. Roxas let his body relax for another moment, soaking up as much last minute warmth as he could. Then he rolled off the bed, being very careful to let his hand accidentally hit the other boy in the stomach. He smirked at the quiet "oof" while heading toward the adjoined washroom. "Go get ready. I'll be there in a few minutes. Try not to be too helpless, Your Majesty," teased the blonde, ignoring the halfhearted glare from the brunette on his bed.

They almost managed to get to the dining hall with any mishap. Almost. Sora had somehow managed to trip over his own feet and crash into Roxas who in turn knocked the water basin out the window. Both had stuck their heads out the window to see the damage, but Roxas quickly ushered his friend back to changing when obscenities came rising up with loud and clear vehemence.

They arrived downstairs without further trouble. Sora immediately plopped down next to a blonde man already sitting there. Roxas nodded at him before quietly settling down into a seat next to the brunette. No one spoke between the three for a while, with only quiet sounds of clinking cutlery to fill in the silence.

Roxas was almost done eating when he heard someone clear their throat. He looked up to see Cloud set his fork down on his plate, fiddle with the edge of his napkin for a moment, before turning towards Sora and opening his mouth to speak. "Sora, I've set up a meeting for you with prospective husband," he began, completely ignoring the cry of "not again!" from Sora. "Now before you start complaining again," he glared, "this boy is supposed to be a lot like you, loud, outgoing, and in search for a partner."

"I told you, I don't want to get married!"

Cloud ignored his son's outburst again. "Look, this the last person I am setting you up with for a while. If things don't work out, you will have six months to find a suitable partner. If you can't find anyone by then, you'll have to marry whoever choose," he offered.

Sora didn't say anything for a moment. He worried his lip for a moment, deciding whether or not to object to his father's offer. Roxas leaned over next to Sora's ear. "Just agree. The sooner you meet and ditch the guy, the sooner you can start looking for someone yourself," he whispered. The brunette nodded his assent to his father and the two headed back up toward their rooms.

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Chapters might be slow in coming, but never fear, come they will!


End file.
